Inspired direction and an all-around fabulous cast overcome community theater design limitations in You Can’t Take It With You, the latest crowd-pleaser from Santa Monica’s now 80-year-old Morgan-Wixson Theatre.

Few golden age Broadway comedies hold up anywhere near as marvelously as George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s 1936 classic, the playwriting duo’s laugh-packed look at a charmingly eccentric multi-generational family residing together in perfect, if oddball, harmony in a large New York City home in the mid-1930s.

Heading the blended-family household is Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff (the marvelous Carl Weintraub, proving you’re only as old as you feel), who quit Wall Street decades ago because he “wasn’t having any fun” and now lives with:

• Daughter Penny Sycamore (Melodie Rivers, sweet and endearing), who writes plays because a typewriter was delivered by mistake eight years ago.

 • Granddaughter Essie Carmichael (scene stealer extraordinaire Cassidy LeClair), who longs to be a dancer even though her Russian émigré ballet instructor Mr. Kolenkhov (a zestful Michael Mullen) opines that “she stinks.”

• Penny’s husband Paul (Perry Shields in World’s Greatest Dad mode) and longtime lodger Mr. De Pinna (Dani Bustamante, wildly and wonderfully wacky), who make fireworks in the basement while Essie’s husband Ed (Bradley Holzer, proving even nerds can steam up a stage) plays the xylophone and delivers his wife’s homemade candies (called “Love Dreams”) with hand-printed circulars inside.

 • African-American maid Rheba (Krysten Williams, a sassy, straight-talking treat), who cooks meals of “cornflakes and some kind of meat” while her unemployed boyfriend Donald (spirited sidekick Sammie Wayne) is out catching flies to feed to the family’s pet reptile.

• And last but not least, “normal” granddaughter Alice Sycamore (Abigail Stewart, exuding 1930s girl-next-door sparkle), whose humdrum day job working for a Wall Street banker has led to romance with his handsome son Tony Kirby (Erin Galloway, dreamy as all get-out) and a determination that the best way for Tony to get to know her oddball family would be “in small doses.”

Unfortunately for Alice, Tony and his parents arrive a day early for her painstakingly planned dinner party at the Sycamore’s, leading to an evening of surprises for the stuffy Mr. Kirby (John Combs, harrumphing his way into our hearts) and his oh-so-proper wife Miriam (a deliciously pinch-faced Cindy Shields).

Completing the cast of characters are IRS man Wilber C. Henderson (a hilariously harried Daniel Koh), who sets one plot thread in motion when he shows up to inform Grandpa that he owes about twenty years back income tax; Gay Wellington (Amoy Lee, a drunken delight), the actress/lush who Penny has invited home to read one of her plays;

Mr. Kolenkhov’s royal chum The Grand Duchess Olga Katrina (a high-spirited Patti Lewis), a Russian émigré who works as a waitress at Childs Restaurant; and a trio of G-Men (no-nonsense quartet Koh, Mike Currie, Herb Hall, and Harrison Hume Smith) who find themselves none too happy about the circulars Ed’s been placing in Essie’s candy boxes.

All of this adds up to a play that may be 90-years-old and counting but manages not to show its age even the teensiest bit, particularly as directed with attention to both performances and details by Cate Caplin, who earns bonus points for some of the year’s most seamless scene changes.

Indeed the whole shebang is so downright delightful (and Mullen’s 1930s costumes and Judi Lewin’s hair, makeup, and wigs so spot-on) that I can’t help wishing the latest from the Morgan-Wixson had been given the professional veneer it deserves. (William Wilday’s set and lighting are merely serviceable, and a expansive bare floor doesn’t help.)

On the decidedly plus side, acoustics are everything actors and an audience could hope for with no sense that we’re hearing artificially amplified sound. (Christiam ‘Gama’ Franco is sound designer.)

You Can’t Take It With You is produced by Crystal Yvonne Jackson. Music director Koh has Holzer’s Ed playing the xylophone like a pro. Eleina Liang is production stage manager and Grace Dohrmann and Isa Sanesi are assistant stage managers. Ariella Salinas Fiore is intimacy coordinator. Amanda Meade-Tatum is show swing.

No Broadway comedy classic has stood the test of time better than You Can’t Take It With You, and under Cate Caplin’s impeccable direction, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s celebration of non-conformity and Carpe Diem remains every bit as relevant, powerful, and entertaining in 2026 as it did way back in 1936.

Morgan-Wixson Theatre, 2627 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica. Through March 29. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 2:00.
www.morgan-wixson.org

–Steven Stanley
March 7, 2026
Photos: Gabriel Tejeda-Benitez

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: George S. Kaufman, Los Angeles Theater Review, Morgan-Wixson Theatre, Moss Hart